Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1887-08-12
The Unfortunates Mostly From Illi-
nois on the Line Of the Toledo,
Peoria & Western.
, The Imprisoned Passengers Ruth
lessly Robbed While Beg
ging For Assistance.
The Belief Expressed That the Dis
aster is the Result of
Deliberate Plot,
Partial List of the Killed.


CHICAGO, Aug. 1.-THE Times special
from Forrest, ILL.,, says: ALI the railway
horrors in the history of this country were
surpassed three miles east of Chatsworth
last night, when an excursion train on the
Toledo, Peoria & Western road; dropped
through a burning bridge and over 100
people were killed and four times that
number more or less injured. The train
was composed of six sleeping cars, six day
coaches and chair cars and three baggage
cars. It was carrying
NINE HUNDRED AND SIXTY PASSENGERS,
all excursiOnists, and was bound for Mag
ara Falls. The train had been made up all
Western road and the excurslonists hailed
from various points in central Illinois, the
bulk of them, however, coming from Pc
oria. Some of the passengers came from
Canton, Elpaso, Washington and in fact
all stations along the line from as far west
as Burlington and Keokuk, la. Special
and cheap rates had been made for the ex-
cursion and all sorts of people took ad-
vantage of it. When the train drew out of
Peoria at 8 O'Clock last evening it was
loaded to its utmost capacity. Every berth
in the six sleepers was taken and the day
cars carried sixty people each. The train
was so heavy that two engines were
attached to it,and when itpassed this place
it was an hour and half behind time.
Chatsworth, the next station east
of here, was six miles off. The
run there is made in less than
seven minutes. The terrible momentum
of those fifteen coaches and two heavy
engines shooting through space at the rate
of mile minute can be understood. No
stop was made at Chatsworth. Three
miles east of Chatsworth is little slough
where the railroad crosses run about
ten feet deep and fifteen feet wide. Over
this was stretched an ordinary wooden
trestle bridge and as the excursion train
was the horror of the engineer on the
front engine when he saw that
THE BRIDGE WAS ON FIRE.
There was no chance to stop. 1t would
have taken half a mile to stop. The first
engine pessed over in safety. AS it went
over the bridge fell beneath it and it could
only have been the terrific speed of the
train Which saved the lives of the engineer
and his fireman. The next engine went
twinkling of an eye nearly 100 people
found instant death and fifty more were so
hurt that they could not live. As for the
wounded, they were everywhere. Only
the sleeping coaches escaped, and as the
startled and half dead passengers came
tumbling out of tn EN- they found
SUCH A SCENE OF DEATH
as is rarely witnessed. 1t lacked but five
minutes of midnight. Down in the ditch
lay the second engineer, McClintock, dead,
and his fireman, Applegate, badly injured.
On top were piled three baggage cars one
coaches. They were telescoped as cars
never were before and three of them
were pressed into just space
enough for one. The second car had
mounted its trucks, crashed through the
car ahead of it, crushing the wood work
aside like paper, and lay there resting on
the top of the sea is, while every passenger
in the front car was lying dead or dying
underneath. Out of that car but four peO-
pie came alive. On TOP of the second car
lay the third, and although the latter did
not cover its bearer as completely as the
one beneath. its bottom was smeared with
the blood of its victims. The other cars
were not so badly crushed. but they were
broken and twisted in every conceivable
way and every crushed timber and bearer
represented a crushed human frame and
broken bones. Instantly the air was filleu
with cries Of the wounded and shrieks Of
the dying.
GRoANs OF MEN AND SCREAMS OF WOMEN
united to make an appalling sound and
above all could be heard the agonizing cries
of little children. There was another ter
rible danger ahead yet to be met. The
bridge was still burning and the wrecked
cars were laying on and around the fiercely
burning timbers. Everywhere in the